Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Some of the contributions were very enlightening and some were very predictable. Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin talked about a wounded country. It seems that his party is more wounded than the country. Not all that long ago the leader of the Labour Party was Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform when he negotiated many of the reforms in the public service and played a very effective role in that Department. It seems that the Labour Party has, unfortunately, been begotten by incurable amnesia about its time in government. It is regrettable for a once proud party is now going down the road of abandoning credibility which stems from the last Government being good. The Government continued from where it left off. Coming into the House and throwing the toys out of the cot, with all of its negativity, strikes at the heart of the lack of credibility from which the Labour Party is suffering.